I mentioned earlier that there's a reasonable way to fly home from Japan and an unreasonable one. Due to complications ensuing from the fact that my return ticket was purchased back when we thought we'd be in the UAE for the year, I believe my itinerary blazes new trails into the absurd. One of my friends joked that it sounded like my sister was just showing off how many cities she knew.
Tomorrow morning, I head to Kyoto with Rachel by shinkansen (bullet train). After spending two days there, I'm going to Osaka, then flying from Osaka to Dubai. I have a nineteen hour layover in the UAE, during which I have to take a cab from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. I fly from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt where I have a six hour layover, Frankfurt to DC, and DC to VT. The odyssey spans three days and three airlines.
It's basically an accelerated version of the last four months of my life in reverse, and it would be nice to think this literary symmetry would be reflective and filled with deep thoughts about space and time. I suspect all I will be thinking about is how much I want to change out of my clothes and lie down all the way.
I'm extremely excited to go home, but am also getting a bit sad to be leaving Japan. I've gotten pretty close to Brett and Rachel and I'll miss living with them and their exuberant golden retriever, Abby. I have a bad track record with recent departures: I cried when I left Swat, I cried when I left DC and I cried when I left Vermont. I have a feeling the trend will continue.
I doubt I'll post while in transit, but I'm planning to post about Kyoto, Osaka, the trip and what I think of the term 'global citizen' when I get home. I also have some ongoing thoughts about civil society and participatory/popular democracy I've been meaning to write about for a while as soon as I can organize my thinking better. Maybe I'll be inspired to write transit survival advice.
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